Spider-Woman: First Contact
by dinadan256
Summary: After an ambush Spider-Woman, AKA Gwen Stacy, is trapped inside a collapsed building. Injured and nearly helpless, she is discovered by an extraterrestrial goo. Currently a One-Shot.


Spider-Woman: First Contact

"No signs of Spider-Woman detected. Preparing for extraction... holding." A monotone and clearly mechanical voice stated. It belonged to a purple machine, built eerily reminiscent of a spider: An oversized, steel-plated abdomen connecting to the thorax, which had three pairs of joint limbs. Instead of a last leg pair and a head, it had a humanoid upper body with arms ending in smoking gun barrels. All in all it was four meters long and nearly two meters tall.

Next to it were a pair of identical looking automatons and a tall man, clad in some kind of armored, green suit. He was covered from head to toe, with only his eyes remaining visible. The suit also had a long, powerful tail like that of a scorpion. Even covered completely, it was clear as day that the man was twitchy and on edge.

"Gargan, I mean, Scorpion to Headquarters. Smythe, your Spider-Slayers sure were worth their money. Damn, you should've seen them at work. A masterpiece if there ever was one. Shot the dumb bitch nearly to ribbons. What did you upgrade them with? Starktech?" The man, Gargan, was talking to the robots, his voice dripping with glee.

"Please as if someone of my abilities would have need of Stark's little toys! Their success was never in question, Scorpion. Your presence was intended purely to minimize damage to them, should Spider-Woman manage to get up close to my creations." A slightly distorted, but very smug voice answered after a few moments.

"About that..." Gargan trailed off as he surveyed the damage.

The plan had been for him to lure Spider-Woman into a trap and keep her busy until the Spider-Slayers locked onto her. She had escaped, but that had been what Smythe expected and the Spider-Slayers had pursuit Spider-Woman to a warehouse between Garment District and Hell's Kitchen. Cornered, she had tried to fight them off. The result? Rubble was all that was left of the building, blown apart by the machines' armaments during the fight. It must have been quite a battle, too, because Gargan could easily make out pieces of other Spider-Slayers. There was, however, no trace of the eternal pain in the ass that was Spider-Woman, probably buried under tons of debris as she was.

"Your toys didn't exactly wait up and you know I wanted my pound of flesh. How many did you sic on her anyway, Smythe?" Gone was Gargan's cocky tone, replaced by clear annoyance.

An audible sigh seemed to be the only answer he was going to get.

"I guess that means we're done, right?"

"Just get back here, leave it to the authorities to extract her carcass, unless you want to find out how well prepared your suit is for menial work." Smythe's good mood had evaporated, as if it hadn't existed in the first place.

"What if she survived? You know she is good at this 'against-all-odds' crap." Gargan seemed torn between hope and exasperation.

"If she had tried to elude us before the structure collapsed, she would undoubtedly have appeared on the Spider-Slayers' sensor arrays. For now it doesn't matter whether she is dead or just injured, because she can't escape from the debris without assistance. If she is truly fortunate, she will be found before she bleeds out and will end up in the very same prison as her enemies." The voice emitted by the robots took an almost predatory edge. "I would exult if only we could excavate her carcass, but alas you are a wanted man."

Gargan shrugged and made to leave. "Fine by me, seems like you have it all figured out. Can't wait to gloat to Jameson that we finally got the drop on her."

Inside the ruins of the building, her clothes in tatters, was Spider-Woman. The remnants of the her costume no longer concealed her real identity as Gwendolyne Stacy. Yes, Spider-Woman was indeed still alive. For how long she would stay so, however, was another matter. Both her left arm and leg stood at an odd angle and she had lacerations all across her body. Only her spider-sense had allowed her to escape immediate death and even that wouldn't have been enough if the floor hadn't given way and allowed her to fall into a basement level clear of the majority of debris. As skilled and lucky as the vigilante had proven herself to be, she was still unconscious and bleeding. Without help she might die, just like Smythe had predicted.

* * *

All of this had been silently observed. A strange manner of dark shade started to slither out of a corner and crawled above, through and under the rubble. It appeared to have more in common with a puddle of oil than with a living creature, but its movement path was far too deliberate to be some sort of liquid. And alive it was and not from this planet.

It had stowed away inside a spacecraft and arrived along with its human crew several weeks ago. Since then it had been seeking an extraordinary individual. The city, not to mention planet, was teeming with lifeforms, but none of them had peeked its immediate interest. It was well aware that it couldn't be picky forever, it just wasn't in its nature to remain solitary. In fact, throughout the last few weeks it had reduced itself to temporary bound with beings lacking true self-awareness. It was slightly humiliating to share a body, but not a mind. This amounted to only half a symbiosis. However, having been bound to a feline, a lizard and a bird of prey gave the being a better understanding of life on this planet, especially about the manner of creatures calling it home. Hopefully that experience would proof beneficial to its next host.

In this manner it had been patient and this patience had paid off. The young female everyone called Spider-Woman was intriguing. It had tried to trace her, but had not been able to find her home or at least a temporary refuge.

But now Spider-Woman was not going anywhere. It took awhile to shift through collapsed building, yet this only increased the creature anticipation. Finally it saw the female, half buried, battered and broken. Nothing that could not be fixed, she was clearly alive and not in imminent danger of expiring. Savoring the moment, the black goo started to close in on the young woman.

* * *

Thoughts were running through Gwen's head, unfocused and jumbled, her mind still too confused and hurt to completely wake up. What had happened? Where was she? Was it day or night? She couldn't move and her eyelids felt like they were glued shut.

She began regaining control over her thoughts, but thinking hurt and the details came back to her almost reluctantly. There had been a fight or more like a battle. Gwen, in her Spider-Woman guise, tried to stop the Scorpion from robbing a money transporter. What happened then was a mess. New and improved Spider-Slayers jumping out of nowhere, the Scorpion totally ignoring his loot and attacking her in tandem with the upgraded machines and even the bloody cops being more afraid of her than the manic guy robbing them.

This let her thought-process grind to a halt. Why did that police officer nearly shoot her? Why was nothing she did ever enough? She was so sick and tired of being called a menace, of being hated by everyone. Most other costumed heroes were as jumpy around her as they were around hardened criminals. Wasn't it enough that she saw Peter's face nearly every night? He had been her friend, a genius with a great future in front of him. And now he was gone, all because Gwen had failed.

Did these people think she would forget? Did they think that she had simply moved on? Gwen was sometimes convinced that most everyone simply enjoyed hating _something._ It was frustrating and... No! She would not lose hope and she would not look for excuses. Getting through all this was a tough challenge, but one that she would overcome. First she needed to figure how she ended up in her current situation. Then she could decide on what to do.

Trying to focus on what happened after she tried to escape the Spider-Slayers caused a stab of pain in her head. Gwen wasn't really able to understand what was going on. Nevertheless, she tried again to open her eyes. Slowly she made headway. Even after they were open, it felt like an eternity before she could actually discern anything. She was surrounded by rubble, as far as she could tell. Her head was still beyond her ability to move, but she seemed inside a destroyed building.

Then it came back. The chase that had led to the battle at the warehouse. Those new robots were so much more sophisticated than the last batch, able to match Gwen's movement speed and only somewhat weaker. What they lacked in strength and agility they more than made up in firepower, which had collapsed the building on top of her. She managed to weave through falling debris for a few moments, before she had been finally hit and lost consciousness. It seemed that she broke through the main floor and dropped into the basement. Considering that the collapse of the building in all likelihood had trapped her, this had probably saved her life.

It did nothing for her pain, though. Still, better injured than dead. Working through her pain she managed to make her right hand twitch. Gwen focused on her arm and she managed to nudge it around a few inches. The numbness started to disappear and was replaced by a stinging sensation. The Web-Shooter felt fine and unbroken, too. Encouraged, she tried to repeat that feat with her left, but that only earned her excruciating pain. That wasn't what she had expected and she tried move her legs. Neither moved an inch. Panic started to mount and she tried again. And again, neither moved, but her left leg suddenly felt like it was on fire.

Gwen tried to calm down and steadily moved her head to the left. She quickly wished she didn't. The pain should have been a clue, but seeing is believing and she clearly saw a unevenly broken arm. Frustration mounted as feeling returned to her body. She would now need the expert help of a hospital and that meant certain discovery. With her amount of injuries, there would be no 'I fell down some stairs'. Not to mention that she didn't have the money to pay for treatment anyway.

Summoning what strength remained in her body, Gwen propped herself up on her right arm. Her left really looked bad. Her eyes trailed along the rest of her body. It seemed that her left side took the brunt of whatever happened after she lost consciousness, her leg was clearly broken, too, though, not to the extent of her arm. Judging by the painful sensation she got from trying to take a deep breath, a rip or two was cracked as well. Gwen wasn't even trying to count the many, many bruises, cuts and gashes. Her right leg seemed to be buried under debris. She could barely feel it. Her body was in horrible shape. And, to add insult to injury, her costume was reduced to rags, not able to protect Gwen's modesty, let alone her identity.

Despite her pain and the obvious danger of her situation, annoyance had started to replace panic. Too tired to move, the young vigilante tried to get an idea of her surroundings. The basement seemed more or less stable, for now. A couple of crates had spilled their contents, which were mainly building supplies. There was also an oil spill close to her, creeping steadily closer. She tried to keep her mind occupied, to distract herself from her pain. It had always worked during fights.

"Great, not only am I half-naked, injured and hungry. Soon I'll be covered in oil. I can see the headlines of the Daily Bugle already 'Spider-Menace polluting environment!'" Speaking made Gwen aware of how parched her throat was. How long had she been down here?

She wondered whether she could somehow recover fast enough to get herself out of her quandary, before someone else found her. Gwen knew that she bounced back from injuries faster than any human, but right now she'd give a lot to have a bit more of that. Like that one guy from Canada. Wolverine, she thought, was his codename and he was part of the Alpha Flight, a state sponsored group super-powered people. She had seen footage of him going toe to toe with the Hulk and getting back up again and again. Being hit by that jade bundle of anger management issues was definitely not on her to-do list. But Wolverine's brand of healing ability would be useful now. Though, she wasn't certain how fast his actually was. He never had looked like he had a broken bone, so what did she know? Come to think of it, there were a lot fewer news reports about them.

As Gwen decided to lay down again, a ball fell from the floor above and landed next to Gwen, startling her. It was just out of her reach, and kept rolling a bit until she could no longer follow it without moving. Something she didn't want to as her head was still feeling like it was on the verge of exploding. Her backpack held some mild painkillers and she wished she had it with her. She was at a loss of how to get out of this place on her own. She was simply too injured to make it out by herself. The ball returned, this time it was rolling towards where the oil spill had been. The foundation must have been build slightly uneven.

Suddenly a feeling of distinct wrongness came over Gwen. If the ball was rolling towards the oil spill how could the oil flow towards her? And what was crude oil doing in a warehouse full of building supplies anyway? She made to sit up again, faster than she probably should have, but she just needed to see that everything was fine.

It wasn't.

The pain must have blocked out any other sensation, because Gwen couldn't believe what she saw. Her left leg was covered halfway to her knee in what she had thought was oil. And it crept up further, dissolving what had remained of her costume along the way. A scream of primal terror escaped her. She didn't want to end up like this, digested by some monster-slime! Not now, with so much left to do in her life!

No! She couldn't just give up! Gwen grabbed a floor tile to gain leverage. With an almighty pull, fueled entirely by fear and adrenaline, she dragged her right leg halfway out of the pile of rubble. Whatever that black stuff was, it seemed unconcerned by her struggle. Taking heart in her progress she gritted her teeth and tugged even harder, again and again. And she did it, her foot finally came loose!

Her elation was short-lived, however. The bleeding cuts were one thing, but when Gwen tried to put pressure on the foot, pain shot up through it. It was most likely sprained. Still, Gwen would not give up. She managed to rip off a large part of the creature. Using her still healthy arm she began to pull herself away. She didn't know whether this would be enough, but there was no alternative to her. As that didn't succeed in putting her out of danger fast enough, she used the still functioning Web-Shooter.

A cruel tug at her left leg ended whatever ideas Gwen had about getting away. The creature was clearly fed up with Gwen's escape attempts and redoubled its efforts to smother her. As a last ditch effort she aimed her Web-Shooter at the central mass of the creature and tried to contain it with her trademark balls of web. Contrary to the girl's fears, it seemed not able to quickly dissolve her webs. But try as she might she couldn't trap the creature, with just one arm she was just too damn slow! Her head swung from left to right and back again. There had to be something to get her out of this! Something! Anything!

Nothing.

Panic started to give way to resignation. She couldn't do it. Whatever this black goo was, it would consume her. Gwen would die here, alone and forsaken by everyone, with nobody to blame but herself. Peter, too, would be quickly forgotten. His death ending up being nothing but a rallying cry for one more hysterical politician. She stopped struggling against what she now believed to be inevitable. Instead Gwen started to observe the liquid being. Before she had turned to super-powered vigilantism, Gwen had been just as fascinated by natural sciences as Peter. That had been the start of it all.

It had gone back to covering her left leg. By now it was slightly above her knee. There was a large, still bleeding gash right next to the current edge. She felt no pain from where she was already contaminated, or rather not _more_ pain. Then Gwen noticed that she could make out the outlines of her foot, even the toes were clearly visible, despite being covered for some time now. In fact, the layer there had lost some of its liquid appearance. From what she could see it was smooth and evenly spread. What purpose did that serve? Was it trying to cover her in some kind of cocoon before consuming her, like a spider would?

"And another headline in the making: 'Spider-Woman devoured by alien Spider-Goo!'"

Gwen really didn't appreciate the irony if that would be the case. But what else was left to her than gallows humor? Thinking rationally, Gwen realized that running had never been an option. She had only injured herself further and if the creature didn't kill her, she made almost sure that she wouldn't last long enough to celebrate her good fortune.

Gwen watched curiously as small tendrils sprouted from the main black mass and connected with more of her skin. Once it had covered the gash, Gwen expected it to do something with such a large opening in her skin. It didn't. It covered the skin around and filled the injury. Then the gash seemed to close itself, until only the smooth and even black layer remained, still glistening a bit like slime. Concentrating on that point told the girl that it wasn't instantly healed, but instead expertly stitched together, with no sign on the skin remaining. Intellectually Gwen understood that the creature had to enter her body for something like this, but with all the cuts on her legs that was hardly a problem, even if you discounted all the skin pores. That, however, meant that her entire body was crawling with small amounts of an unknown, possibly alien creature. Thinking about this made her shudder.

Still, there was nothing to be done about it, so Gwen continued to observe. The being crept up faster and started to dissolve the rags on her right leg. On her left it was up where she suspected the fracture in her leg to be. Once there it seemed to slow down and Gwen had to grit her teeth in order not to scream at the sudden agony emanating from her thigh. It was gone after what seemed like an eternity, but couldn't have been longer than a minute. It even took with it the constant pain of her broken thigh-bone. Gwen could again feel that the bone wasn't magically whole, but rather well treated. In fact she could now move it with only moderate discomfort. And in just that moment she could also sense something cooling around her right ankle. Looking there she could observe the swelling receding, especially with her foot only covered in a thin black layer of whatever that thing was.

"What are you? Why are you doing this?" Gwen's voice was a hoarse whisper. She was barely aware she even said something.

Without warning her mind was filled with images. They depicted an injured and emaciated stray cat being covered by the creature. What resulted was some form of B-Movie monster: Smooth, hairless skin, A long whip-like tail, dangerous looking talons and a downright vicious snout, filled with dagger like fangs, salivating where it stood. But before Gwen could even think about being transformed into a monster, the image changed to the goo separating from the feline and it looking far healthier than it did before, as well as completely normal and not at all monster-like.

"Sooo...you want to help, somehow?" This time she expected an answer and, while she got no new images, she was filled with the idea of being correct. The creature probably couldn't communicate through normal means.

Gwen knew she should feel happy. Karma had finally decided to cut her some slack, after all, but the young girl was just stunned. Ever since Gwen had woken up that day she had been through a roller-coaster of emotions. Confusion, anger, elation, panic, pain, despair, hope and everything in between and Gwen was simply done, too emotionally drained to feel anything. She just sat there in a stupor, eyes watching nothing in particular. Of course that didn't apply to the alien creature, which continued to cover her lower body, knitting together her many injuries.

This continued for a few minutes, the advance of black stopping every few inches to take care of another bruise or wound. Gwen regained control of her faculties, a lot faster than someone as tormented as her should be able to and just in time to feel a slight draft around her crotch. Looking down she saw that the fabric around her hips had been dissolved, completely exposing her. Not that there was anyone around to see it, but that didn't stop her for turning beet red. And sure enough she could feel something probing her privates. Gwen started to worry that this might go in a terrible direction. Perhaps it was sensing her apprehension or perhaps it had no great interest to begin with, but it settled on smoothly covering her crotch.

"I was afraid I had to teach you a lesson in propriety. And after my time with 'The Mary Janes' I can't be considered a credible source for that. Can't believe I let Em Jay talk me into joining them in the first place... We were nothing but tools for attention to her, hehe!"

With that thought she trailed away and starting to think about High School. An easier time, when she was just a young girl among dozens like her, with only her peculiar interest in biology standing out to superficial scrutiny. She must've been missing for months now, though she had no real idea what date it actually was. One day blended into the next and she usually slept when the opportunity presented itself, not by a fixed schedule.

It had been months since she heard anything about 'The Mary Janes' in the papers, too. Their five minutes of fame were long over it seemed. At least she could catch glimpses of her father. She couldn't be so selfish and make him hide her, considering that the police searched for her. Hell, he was even part of the task-force in charge of hunting her down, so she left the only home she ever knew. The streets were hard on her. Most people didn't care for a healthy, athletic young girl begging. Or really anyone begging at all. There were some odd jobs, easy enough for someone with super powers. She usually had it a lot better than most homeless people and she helped where she could. At least she could reliably afford to wash herself and her clothes. She had taken comfort in that once she had noticed how gaunt she had become. But there was no way back to that life, regardless how much she missed her friends or father. She had to make things right first.

Pushing her worries about her everyday life to the side, she busied herself by going back to examine the creature again. As the minutes passed, Gwen was growing more comfortable with her strange helper. At least she decided it was a helper. That was a lot more productive now that she wasn't expecting her imminent death anymore.

By then her stomach had been completely covered and she watched with curiosity as tiny tendrils shot out of the black mass, before pulling the rest after them. It would probably go a lot faster if it didn't have to stitch her body together, too. Observing it, Gwen was just filled with questions, questions aside of 'What is it?' or 'Where is it from?'. Sure she wanted to know that, too, but wouldn't get an answer without either the creatures help or some very advanced equipment. So she tried to get answers on more immediate questions.

Like, for example, how fast it can spread. Was it limited by a certain speed or how much area it had to spread from? To get an answer to that she moved her broken arm towards the slimy part of her helper and watched. And just as she had hoped the creature continued its way up her chest along her breasts and simultaneously up her hand. Pushing the arm further down, despite the pain, she tried to give it as much room to work as possible. Right then she remembered that she could move her legs and crawled closer to what remain of the puddle.

There wasn't much left but the moment her hands touched it, it crept up and covered them as tightly as the rest of her. By now there was little anxiety left, only a weird mix of curiosity and gratitude. After all this time something was finally there to help Gwen. Not point fingers, ignore or downright reject her, but real, tangible help! So what if it looked gross? She had already made the mistake of thinking it evil, because it looked odd. Until she got something that tells her otherwise, she would assume that the creature was benevolent in nature.

A wave of appreciation told Gwen that it was just as unfamiliar with courtesy and cooperation as she was with help. She yelped as the appreciation was quickly followed by pain. Of course. Her arm was being fixed. This time it took longer to heal and Gwen tried as hard as she could to keep it together. The feeling of remorse coursing through her helped. Her new friend didn't want to hurt her and Gwen couldn't really be angry at it. It probably was numbing the pain as best it could, but she was used to it anyway. Healing faster never meant healing without pain. Just as she thought that she could deal with it, her chest felt like someone had jabbed a crowbar in there and started to make room for some extra filling. She had pretty much forgotten about her cracked rips.

The ordeal made her respect for that Wolverine guy turn up another notch. Anyone who could not only take a punch from green-and-mean, but also the pain of being knit back together near instantly was clearly badass. He must be able to control his pain better than most people could control their bladder.

Once most of the pain stopped, Gwen tried to get up. She was used to the aching and discomfort of accelerated healing, but this had been intense. Putting some weight on her left leg made it clear that she could deal with it. Recently injured limbs could usually not be used, much less strained, but what would be a strain for a normal person wasn't even a light workout for yours truly. She could throw around cars, standing up with a more or less mended leg wasn't exactly hard.

Gwen looked herself over as best she could without a mirror. The black alien thing had her covered skintight from the toes to the jawline. There was nothing left of her old costume and she felt a bit apprehensive and self-conscious about that. She could make out the outlines of everything, but details were obscured by her new regular and blemish free black hide. There were no signs of finger- or toenails, no bellybutton, no nipples and her crotch was just as smooth as everything else. She let her hands glide along her hips and wasn't surprised that she could feel everything as if she had been naked. Maybe even a bit more. Since it could only communicate through voiceless feelings and images it had to be connected to her nervous system. Either that or it was telepathic and then it would, presumably, be able to also transmit sensations. It seemed to linger and Gwen realized that part of the apprehension she felt wasn't from herself but from her unique friend.

"It's great and all that you're helping me, but I can't really go out like this, can I? This is one step short of exhibitionism."

Gwen tried to be playful to get through the awkward situation. While she tried to be open minded about a creature living on or inside her, she wasn't all that keen on being fully covered, especially when that meant looking like a fetish doll. She also wasn't planning on ending up like that dog from her memories, all monstrous looking. Though, it had probably been a lot of help to a stray, so she wouldn't judge her friend by it.

"If only _someone _hadn't eaten my costume we would have been free to leave this dump. As soon as I got rid of the rubble that is."

Suddenly she had the feeling that she had offended her roomie. That was certainly not her intention, but before she could open her mouth to apologize she felt her skin -for lack of a better- shift and flow around her body. Her eyes widened as slight panic set it. Had she hurt its fleeings? Should she have kept her mouth shut? Wouldn't be the first time. Shrugging she decided to just stay as still as the adrenaline in her body allowed and show it the trust she had always wished for herself.

The first thing Gwen noticed was that the general surface settled for a lightly different look. It felt just as snug as before, but no longer appeared as if painted on. It seemed to only be a very well tailored, formfitting, black body suit. An odd feeling made her look to her feet, where more of the black mass was converging and part of it changed its color. Quickly she could make out what they were trying to form: The same kind of shoes she had been wearing before, only instead of cyan they were white. A thrill went through her. Was there anything this being couldn't do? She started to check the rest of her over for differences.

There were white strips starting from her shoulders. From each side one ran short and narrow stopping just above her breasts, while another ran the entire length of each arm and was nearly as wide as them, too. These ones stopped at the back of her hands. At the same time another narrow, white band settled just below her breasts, as if to secure them together with the one from her shoulder. Just as those were done she could see another pair coming from her back and settling themselves right above her hips. The way all this happened, with the white patches growing out of the black and snaking around her body, before they fastened themselves with the help of the still-black goo looked fascinating to her and felt even more so.

Right when she wanted to prod the white stripe on the back of her hands, she noticed something that she didn't see before: All her fingertips ended in sharp claws. Not the sharpened nails variant that was so common amongst animals, but seamless looking talons that were natural extensions of her fingers. The hands themselves looked a bit larger than before, too, without appearing oversized. Clenching her hands into fists, Gwen couldn't help but wonder how normal, even good it felt, as if her hands were supposed to be this way. In fact most of her body felt like this.

While she was busy being equally frightened and excited by this new change, she noticed neither the growing black hood nor the white mass creeping up her neck. Right as the weight of the hood became noticeable the right side of her face was beginning to be covered by white tendrils and they showed no sign of slowing down. Even as fear crept back into Gwen's mind, she kept on staring mesmerized at the flowing black and white mass whirling around her body. She was now aware of the white obstructing her vision, but found herself not willing to act on her fears. Maybe this was how a deer caught in the headlights of a car feels? Probably not, but she was just as paralyzed as those animals were.

First the sight in her right eye was crisscrossed with tendrils and then she couldn't see out of it anymore. Her mouth and nose were next and she quickly couldn't open the former. Breathing didn't seem to be a problem, though. Her hair stuck to her head, like when she had been wearing her old mask, only now it was filled with goo and felt somewhat heavier. The tendrils were now starting to cover here left eye and within moments she couldn't see anything. The tissue on her face tightened and she felt something enter her eyes and without warning her sight returned. Only it was better than before. Gwen never needed glasses, but she imagined that the effect would be similar: Everything was just a little bit sharper. What really freaked her out was that she could no longer feel the urge to blink. She could still smell with her noes and feel her mouth opening, but she really had her doubts that it could be seen on what passed for her face right now.

Looking around she found a large puddle of water at one of the walls. It was far from clean but would probably do as a makeshift mirror. Inside it she could make out, thanks to her now better sense of sight, the details that she couldn't see before. Her mask was completely white, except for black patches where her eyes should be. Not that different from her old costume. The hood was black but retained the spider-net pattern on the inside she had been so fond of. Sure it wasn't red, but that wouldn't fit her new look anyway. She could also feel the hood. Not like an extra limb, more like hair, there but not really noticeable. A bit of experimenting proofed that the movements of her face really were largely obscured. The four pairs of white stripes were connected at her back and seemed to form the legs of a stylized spider's thorax. There was no visible head on her back, it ended at the edge of her black hood. Thinking about it made Gwen realize that there _was _a head, namely her own. Without the black hood the stylized thorax would blend into it and make it a complete spider. There was even a thin abdomen running down her spine!

"This is incredible! Perfect even! Maybe a bit _too_ perfect, someone with an eye for detail could probably tell that there was no way in hell to make a suit this formfitting and exact..."

Gwen let a hand glide over her face and savored the sensation this simple act caused. As she noticed the suit ripple again, she was quick to stop it.

"No! Don't change anything! This is really great."

The feeling of smug satisfaction coming from her new-found partner made her roll her eyes. Or at least she imagined doing that.

"Yes, I was wrong. Who needs a costume with you on board? That's what you want to hear, right? I don't mind admitting that, though the hands are a bit surprising. Still, stay like that. They will come in handy soon. Urgh what a bad choice of words, luckily only the two us here, otherwise I would never hear the end of it."

Flexing her aching muscles and checking her abused joints, Gwen got ready to start muscling her wait out of the basement. Alone she had been desperate and nearly lost her drive, but she wasn't alone anymore. And who knows? Maybe this was the start of a new beginning.

"Damn I'm hungry. I guess part of it comes from you. Must've been pretty exhausting fixing me up again. Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry to get hurt again. "

Gwen -no not Gwen- Spider-Woman pulled the hood up and enjoyed how little of her white head remained visible. She looked up and got ready to search for a way out.

"Well, let's get these fancy, new talons dirty."


End file.
